Hawk Circle's Farm Initiative

Ricardo and I have talked for many years about starting a farm here at Hawk Circle.  Aside from having the help of animals to keep our fields open, (which are becoming over grown with honeysuckle!), we've also felt having a small farm here would add  another valuable learning experience for the youth and young adults who come here every year.
 
I guess timing can be everything and apparently it's the right time for us to begin developing this project.   After sending a casual email inquiring about Icelandic sheep, we had a farm, HeartEase Icelandics, generously offer us a small herd of five Icelandic Ewes in exchange for their granddaughters to attend summer camp in the near future.  Ricardo, Javi and I drove out to Dansville, just south of Rochester, NY to pick up the sheep.  With such hot weather and very little rain all summer, farmers have been having a hard time finding enough pasture land that hasn't dried up for their animals to graze on.  So we picked up the sheep a few weeks earlier than planned, brought them back to Hawk Circle where there is plenty of green grass and shrubs to graze on.

I've been familiar with Icelandic sheep only as far as knowing that their wool is what produces the commonly known Lopi yarn.  But after researching this breed more, I found them to be the perfect animal to have here.  They are one of the purest and oldest breed of sheep having been brought over to Iceland many years ago by the Vikings.  They are excellent grazers, eating a variety of plants and shrubs (just what we need!), and they are one of the few sheep that are raised for all three purposes, meat, dairy and fiber.  They are also well versed for rough terrain and do great on hilly and rocky slopes.

Right now, we're doing intensive grazing with the five sheep.  We have two electric fences that enable us to move them around to new pastures every few days.  It's been fascinating to watch what they eat and what they don't.  They love Sumac leaves, which is great since it's high in tannins and good for getting rid of intestinal parasites.  It's also been amazing to watch an area that is so densely, overgrown with honeysuckle and goldenrod, open up where you actually can see into the woods or fields after just a few days of the sheep grazing.

We also visited a llama farm nearby, that is wanting to donate their llamas to not-for-profit organizations.  Another example of "right timing".  People pay anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 for llamas, and Ric just happened to stumble across an add for "Looking to donate llamas to non-profit organizations." The farm couple is looking to retire from the business that at one time was the largest llama breeding farm on the east coast.  Llamas are wonderful guard animals, so Ricardo and I thought maybe having one llama to guard the sheep from predators, mainly coyotes, would be a good idea.  We picked out a beautiful chestnut brown llama and will be picking him up this spring.

Our garden this year, despite the lack of rain, is doing great.  Jacquelyn Ward, a graduate from Marlborough College in Vermont was our garden manager for the summer.  She did a fantastic job of creating a beautiful garden with lots of food and a cool design.  She's returning this fall to help run the after school programs.


We are planning on developing the Hawk Circle farm slowly and we're actively looking for a farmer or farm family that will the right fit for Hawk Circle.  Right now, I'm having fun taking care of our five sheep.  At the end of October, we will be hiring someone to come and shear them.  Icelandic sheep have incredibly long wool making it great for spinning, and I can't wait to start working with the wool.  Annie Hanson, who was our kitchen manager for the summer, is spending the year here and helping with the sheep.  We're both excited to learn how to spin and begin working with this beautiful fiber.  Our plan is to add perhaps a few goats and a few beef cows along with chickens to our farm in the next year and a half with the idea of offering both a farm camp during the summer and farm class trips in the fall of 2014.

If you have any ideas for the farm initiative or want to come help build fences, clear brush or spin some wool, let us know.  We'd love to hear from you.  In the meantime, we'll keep you posted throughout the year with our progress with the Hawk Circle Farm!


Javi's bunnies, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow and Chocolate.  They provide enough manure for all of my flower and herb gardens, plus they are so cute!